No matter what your political persuasions, the world is a mess. Violence, instability, heartbreaking divisiveness. The whole thing is downright biblical.

Some friends of mine would like you to believe that mindfulness will deliver us from this catastrophe.

Unfortunately, it won't.

The hard truth of the matter is that the benefits of mindfulness are modest. Mindfulness will improve your focus. Mindfulness will drop your stress. It will boost your relationships and sooth your depression.

What mindfulness will not do is kickstart a love revolution.

It won't make congress work.

It won't get people to vote for your presidential candidate.

World peace is not in the cards, as far as I can see. And mindfulness won't get us there any faster.

Mindfulness, in my view, is about cutting bullshit at the root. It's about sitting down and making a wide space for the truth of your life: the joys and sorrows, the inevitable limitations.

So let's, all of us, stop hyping mindfulness. It's a beautiful thing. The worthiest of pursuits. It can genuinely change your experience of being alive.

What it can't do is save the world from itself.

Or that's how I'm seeing it this particular Monday morning in January of 2017.

But I'd love to hear from any and all of you. What are the benefits of mindfulness? And how far do those benefits extend?